Monument Valley began as the sandy bottom of an ancient sea....and
now its landforms rise more than 1000 feet in the air!!! (1)

The Totem Pole, a well-known spire in Monument Valley, rises 300 feet in the air, but
it's only a few metres wide!!! (2)

Not only does Monument Valley have tons of eroded rocks...it also has tons of ancient
caves, cliff dwellings of ancient inhabitants, natural arches, and petroglyphs!!! (3)

Monument Valley isn't really a valley! It's actually just a large sandy plain
with landforms that rise 100s of feet above the ground!!! (4)

Monument Valley is a semi-arid region....it only gets about 250 mm (10 in) of precipitation
a year!!! (5)

The reddish hues seen in the red sandstone are caused by iron oxide that's present in
the rock!!! (6)

The Monument Upwarp that caused these ancient sedimentary rocks to reach the surface is
over 100 km long!!! (7)

The Anasazi Indians that inhabited the area from the Common Era suddenly disappeared around
1300 AC without a trace!!! (8)

Monument Valley is known to the Navajo as the "Treeless Area Amid The Rocks" and is believed
to have supernatural powers!!! (9)

According to the Navajo, Totem Pole Rock is said to be a god held up by lightning and
El Capitan is said to be a support for the sky!!! (10)

The major source of income for the Navajo people is tourism as thousands of people come
to Monument Valley every year!!! (11)

Monument Valley was made famous as being the location where countless Western films have
been shot! Some of these include The Vanishing American (1925), Stagecoach (1938), My Darling
Clementine (1946), SheWore A Yellow Ribbon (1949), The Legend Of The LoneRanger
(1952), The Searchers (1956), How The West WasWon (1962), and Cheyenne Autumn (1964).
(12)

John Wayne received his first leading role in the movie Stagecoach, which was
shot in Monument Valley!!! (13)

View of Monument Valley's many buttes and spires rising from the desert (15)